Significant Dates in April

The ninth annual World Autism Awareness Day is 2 April 2017. Every year, autism organizations around the world celebrate the day with unique fundraising and awareness-raising events.

Autism Speaks is an organisation dedicated to promoting solutions, across the spectrum and throughout the lifespan, for the needs of individuals with autism and their families through advocacy and support; increasing understanding and acceptance of autism spectrum disorder; and advancing research into causes and better interventions for autism spectrum disorder and related conditions.

The International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action calls for continued efforts by States, with the assistance of the United Nations and relevant organizations, to foster the establishment and development of national mine-action capacities in countries where mines and explosive remnants of war constitute a serious threat to the safety, health and lives of the civilian population, or an impediment to social and economic development at the national and local levels.

UNMAS works to save lives, to facilitate deployment of UN missions and the delivery of humanitarian assistance, to protect civilians, to support the voluntary return of the internally displaced and refugees, to enable humanitarian and recovery activities and to advocate for international humanitarian and human rights law.

World Health Day, celebrated on 7 April every year to mark the anniversary of the founding of WHO, provides us with a unique opportunity to mobilize action around a specific health topic of concern to people all over the world.

This was declared by the UN General Assembly “to celebrate each year at the international level the beginning of the space era for mankind, reaffirming the important contribution of space science and technology in achieving sustainable development goals and increasing the well-being of States and peoples, as well as ensuring the realization of their aspiration to maintain outer space for peaceful purposes.”

12 April 1961 was the date of the first human space flight, carried out by Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet citizen. This historic event opened the way for space exploration for the benefit of all humanity.

The General Assembly expressed its deep conviction of the common interest of mankind in promoting and expanding the exploration and use of outer space, as the province of all mankind, for peaceful purposes and in continuing efforts to extend to all States the benefits derived there from.

International Mother Earth Day promotes a view of the Earth as the entity that sustains all living things found in nature. Inclusiveness is at the heart of International Mother Earth Day; fostering shared responsibilities to rebuild our troubled relationship with nature is a cause that is uniting people around the world.

UN General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann

International Mother Earth Day provides an opportunity to raise public awareness around the world to the challenges regarding the well-being of the planet and all the life it supports.

In the lead-up to 25 April, WHO is shining a spotlight on prevention, a critical strategy for reducing the toll of a disease that continues to kill more than 400 000 people annually.

Since 2000, malaria prevention has played an important role in reducing cases and deaths, primarily through the scale up of insecticide-treated nets and indoor spraying with insecticides.

Across sub-Saharan Africa, where the disease is heavily concentrated, a greater share of the population is sleeping under insecticide-treated nets. In 2015, an estimated 53% of the population at risk slept under a treated net compared to 30% in 2010. In 20 African countries, preventive treatment for pregnant woman increased five-fold between 2010 and 2015.

Nano Nagle went to her creator on this day 233 years ago. The global Presentation Community mark this day as a celebration of her life, her work, her inspiration, her vision. Nano’s passion and commitment stimulates us in our work and our mission so we may be like her:

In the face of fear, she chose to
be daring,
in the face of anxiety, she chose
to trust,
in the face of impossibility, she chose
to begin